Posts Tagged ‘wisdom’

Would you seek to cross the Atlantic without a substantial support system? Might bet is you’d loudly shout “no”. Yet there are daily, entrepreneurs, some having early success, who insist on taking even more perilous risks with their own business ventures and won’t take advice from anyone. They intuitively know better. That is fine until the seas get so rough that faced with imminent capsize, they scream “help”. Why be so churlish? Get the best qualified help you can afford, pay them on equitable terms and that them as a partner in your future success.

I meet a great many entrepreneurs/founders in their later years embarking on ambitious ownership transitions. In my experience with such complex and ambiguous plans, we need to ensure the strategic guidance to successfully attract ideal investor(s) and convert that into a signed agreement is matched by the seller’s future understanding of their actual personal wealth needs, post-sale. The trail is littered with the remains of unrealistic and poorly informed sellers of businesses that pursued a sale without sound metrics and accountabilities.

What do you actually need financially to live in your desired lifestyle for the rest of your life?

Is it realistic and supported by hard evidence?

If “Yes”, where are you today, what changes must happen, who is accountable, and in what timeframe?

If “No”, when and where are you going to acquire the hard evidence and the expertise, to help you make prudent life changes consistent with your realistic financial means?

It is that simple if you have the courage and volition to put yourself first.

One of the most overlooked aspects of hiring expertise, is separating great teachers (how to do it) from great intellects (what to do). The former is a lot more valuable.

If you are novice standing on a riverbank trying to learn to fish for trout, as I was last week, we often run into passionate “intellects”, who seek to tell you everything they know about casting in a given moment. When what we really need is a great teacher, who excels at discussion, practice, feedback and application in that very same moment and exudes patience.

Who do your clients see you as? Is that the same person you see yourself as?